Pennsylvania category, Page 59
Trump target Al Schmidt gets crucial approval as he moves closer to becoming Pa.’s top election official
This article is made possible through Spotlight PA’s collaboration with Votebeat, a nonpartisan news organization covering local election administration and voting. Al Schmidt, the former Philadelphia city commissioner who made national headlines in 2020 for rebuking then-President Donald Trump’s election fraud claims, is one step closer to officially becoming Pennsylvania’s...
Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting law is upheld again, as court rules against Republican challenge
HARRISBURG — A Pennsylvania state court on Tuesday rejected the latest Republican effort to throw out the presidential battleground state’s broad mail-in voting law that has become a GOP target following former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims about election fraud. It is the latest of several refusals by a state...
Pennsylvania House votes to extend I-95 disaster proclamation until next June
A resolution that would extend to next June Gov. Josh Shapiro’s emergency disaster declaration issued in the response to the collapse of a bridge on I-95 in Philadelphia passed the state House of Representatives. The proposed extension, approved by a bipartisan 165-38 vote, would allow PennDOT to continue to be...
Pa. hunters experience long lines virtually, in person on 1st day of Game Commission license sales
Dorothy Mutter, a cashier at Hepler’s Hardware in Youngwood, was met with a line of hunters waiting for the shop to open when she came to work Monday morning. It was the opening day of hunting license and doe tag sales, and hunters across Pennsylvania eagerly waited, either in line...
Fourth defendant sentenced to prison in 2020 drug-related slaying of classmate
HOLLIDAYSBURG — The last of several teenagers charged in the shooting death of a classmate in a drug-related robbery more than three years ago in Pennsylvania has been sentenced to prison following a plea deal. Damien Green, now 19, was sentenced Friday to 15 to 30 years after pleading guilty...
Safety, oversight concerns raised as Pa. lawmakers pursue billions for hydrogen hubs
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Senate is weighing a measure that would give state regulators, rather than federal ones, the power to...
Walk or run, this busy spot on Pitt campus has a new name
So, will it be Gallagher Walk or Gallagher Run? University of Pittsburgh trustees Friday renamed a spot in the heart of campus for departing Chancellor Patrick Gallagher, saying it reflected a transformational project during his nine-year tenure, and something else about him. The plaza and walkway that were chosen wrap...
Pa. Gov. Josh Shapiro affirms support for funding private school vouchers amid budget push
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — A coalition with wealthy backers is pushing Pennsylvania lawmakers to use public dollars to create tuition vouchers so K-12...
Interstate 95 reopens to some traffic less than 2 weeks after collapse in Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA — Interstate 95 reopened Friday less than two weeks after a deadly collapse in Philadelphia, a quicker-than-expected rebuild to get traffic flowing again on a heavily traveled stretch of the East Coast’s main north-south highway. Workers put the finishing touches on an interim six-lane roadway that will serve motorists...
Temporary lanes on I-95 will reopen at noon Friday, Gov. Shapiro says
PHILADELPHIA — The temporary lanes for the damaged section of Interstate 95 in Northeast Philadelphia will reopen noon Friday, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office announced. “Thanks to the crews that have worked around the clock to repair I-95, six lanes of traffic will reopen to motorists at 12:00 PM ET...
Pa. trooper remains hospitalized in critical condition after ‘ambush’
A Pennsylvania State Police lieutenant shot in Juniata County last weekend during an attack that left another trooper and the shooter dead is still in critical condition on Thursday, authorities said. Lt. James Wagner, 45, was shot by Brandon Stine, 38, during one of several encounters Stine had with troopers...
Pennsylvania House lawmakers pass bill to recruit more educators by offering $10K stipends
HARRISBURG — Faced with a rising number of Pennsylvania teachers leaving the profession, state House lawmakers on Thursday passed a bill to recruit more educators by giving student teachers a stipend while they’re in the classroom. The legislation seeks to remove the barriers for prospective teachers, whose work in the...
Carnegie Mellon president, chair of Pa. university system named to Homeland Security panel
Carnegie Mellon University’s president and the Fox Chapel-based board chair of Pennsylvania’s state-owned university system have been added to an advisory council to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Farnam Jahanian from CMU and Cynthia Shapira from the State System Higher Education’s board of governors are among 20 additions announced...
Fetterman’s bill would free money to fix Pennsylvania streets
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman has proposed a bill to make streets safer, citing Harrisburg as once being home to the “deadliest road in America” and the traffic fallout of the Interstate 95 collapse in Philadelphia. “The recent disaster on I-95 and the subsequent detour to the already dangerous Roosevelt Boulevard...
Pa. campus assault suspect eludes arrest for 2 years, after ‘So I raped you’ Facebook message
PHILADELPHIA — Two years after a former Gettysburg College student finally saw charges filed over her 2013 campus sexual assault, the man suspected of sending her a Facebook message that said, ” So I raped you,” remains on the run. Shannon Keeler, 28, and her attorneys question how Ian T....
Bill would allow Pa. patients to get medical marijuana regardless of illness
Legislation that would loosen up Pennsylvania’s Medical Marijuana Act to allow a patient’s doctor to certify medical cannabis as a suitable treatment regardless of the patient’s medical condition is advancing in the state Senate. The Senate Law & Justice Committee on Wednesday voted 10-1 to approve a bill that would...
Tax credits for Pa. families worth billions of dollars are on the table this budget season
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania families across the income spectrum could receive more than $2.5 billion in tax breaks by 2028 under two...
Pennsylvania House passes $15 minimum wage bill
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania’s Democratic-controlled House of Representatives approved a measure by a close vote Tuesday that would raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2026, fulfilling a long-held party campaign plank that has run up against Republican legislative majorities for years. The bill passed 103-100 with all but one...
Pennsylvania House passes tax credit for new police officers, teachers and nurses
HARRISBURG — A proposed tax credit to recruit new teachers, nurses and police officers passed through the Pennsylvania House of Representatives with bipartisan support on Tuesday, but leaders of the Republican-controlled Senate have suggested it lacks support in the caucus. The bill passed 137-66, with every Democrat and about one-third...
Probe blames Pennsylvania county’s November ballot paper shortage on inexperience, poor training
HARRISBURG — A prosecutor’s review of voting problems in a Pennsylvania swing county where ballot paper ran out last year found no evidence of criminal activity or purposeful efforts to prevent voting, according to a new report that blamed inexperienced supervisors. Luzerne District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce’s 24-page review said only...
I-95 will open this weekend in Philadelphia, Shapiro says
About two weeks after a section of Interstate 95 collapsed in Philadelphia, the heavily trafficked freeway should reopen to traffic. Gov. Josh Shapiro said at a news conference Tuesday that three lanes in each direction will reopen this weekend, about a week ahead of the originally projected timeline, and well...
2 killed in Cambria County plane crash
Two people were killed when a small plane crashed Sunday in Cambria County, about 150 miles northwest of Harrisburg. The twin-engine Piper A-30 went down in a wooded area near the Ebensburg Airport shortly before 4 p.m. The unidentified victims were pronounced dead at the scene, according to local news...
Pa. lawmakers ask for investigations after gaming regulators met privately with casino lobbyists
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — Two Pennsylvania lawmakers have requested investigations into the state Gaming Control Board following a Spotlight PA story that detailed...
Pete Buttigieg vows to reopen Philadelphia I-95 bridge ‘within weeks’
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg reiterated the government’s determination to respond quickly to revive the collapsed Interstate 95 bridge in Philadelphia, saying it was expected to reopen “within weeks.” “Within weeks they are going to be able to get that done with novel approaches to filling that back in,” Buttigieg said...
1 trooper killed, 1 critically wounded in central Pennsylvania
MIFFLINTOWN — State police in Pennsylvania have identified the trooper killed and another trooper critically wounded in separate encounters Saturday with a gunman who attacked a state police barracks and was later shot and killed himself after a manhunt and a fierce gunbattle. Trooper Jacques Rougeau Jr., 29, was killed...
